COP15 & Its Impact on Global Climate Change!

The 15^th edition of the Conference of Parties(COP15) to the United Nations Biodiversity Conference will be held from the 7^th to 19^th December at Montreal, Canada. Climate change along with biodiversity of living species would be some of the key topics that would be discussed during this two week conference and we decided to check how this COP 15 conference, with some of key decision makers around the globe, can impact global climate change and some of the expected outputs from the conference. 

United Nations Convention on Biodiversity Conference(CBD)

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992. Before the signing was completed, there had been a series of discussions at the multilateral level, between diplomats, environmentalists etc. The convention came into effect from 1993 December after the 30 countries ratified the convention. At that moment, there were signatures of 168 countries in the convention. The first session of the conference of parties (COP 1) was held in December 1994, December at Bahamas.

The Aims of CBD

CBD has three main aims. Those three aims are conservation of biodiversity, sustainable usage of biodiversity components and equitable sharing of genetic resources.

The United Nations declared 22^nd May as the International Day for Biological Diversity. More details about above topics can be taken from here. (CBD official website.)

Biodiversity and Climate Change

Biodiversity conservation and global climate change are interconnected topics. According to Millennium Eco-System Assessment , global climate change can be considered as one of the main causes for biodiversity loss in this century.

Global climate change causes a lot of living species to go extinct and some other living species to adapt rapidly to the climate change related consequences. Living species who fail to adapt to climate change have to face the inevitable threat of extinction.

Meanwhile, the methods of biodiversity conservation, restoration of degraded ecosystems and conservation of threatened ecosystems can reduce the intensity of global climate change and as well as these methods can mitigate the harmful effects of climate change.

For example, reforestation can decrease the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide as trees absorb the Carbon from the atmosphere, in turn helping reduce the intensity of global climate change. When we consider mangrove conservation, it helps to reduce the intensity of climate change from absorbing more Carbon Dioxide. And also, mangroves help to mitigate the sea erosion and protect from the storms. More details about this can be taken from here. Archived.

COP 15 and Climate Change

According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), governments around the world will come together to agree on new goals related with protection and restoring of biological diversity.

The draft, which is named as Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, has four long term goals for year 2050 and 21 targets for year 2030.

First, let`s consider on 4 long term goals.

Goal A:

The integrity of all ecosystems is enhanced, with an increase of at least 15 per cent in the area, connectivity and integrity of natural ecosystems, supporting healthy and resilient populations of all species, the rate of extinctions has been reduced at least tenfold, and the risk of species extinctions across all taxonomic and functional groups, is halved, and genetic diversity of wild and domesticated species is safeguarded, with at least 90 per cent of genetic diversity within all species maintained.

Goal B:

Nature’s contributions to people are valued, maintained or enhanced through conservation and sustainable use supporting the global development agenda for the benefit of all.

Goal C:

The benefits from the utilization of genetic resources are shared fairly and equitably, with a substantial

increase in both monetary and non-monetary benefits shared, including for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Goal D:

The gap between available financial and other means of implementation, and those necessary to achieve the 2050 Vision, is closed.

Among those 21 targets for 2030 there is a target which is directly related with climate change as seen below.

Target No.8: Minimize the impact of climate change on biodiversity, contribute to mitigation and adaptation through ecosystem-based approaches, contributing at least 10 GtCO2e per year to global mitigation efforts, and ensure that all mitigation and adaptation efforts avoid negative impacts on biodiversity.

Among the remaining 20 targets also, there are many targets which are connected with climate change, some of which are listed below.

-Ensuring all land and sea areas of the earth are included inside the conservation umbrella.

-Ensure at least 20% of degraded ecosystems are under restoration process.

-Ensure at least 30% of important land and ocean areas for biodiversity being conserved and under the integration plan

-Ensure the effective management of human- wildlife interactions.

-Ensure the health of humans who are involved in trade, consumption and harvesting of wild species.

-Managing the invasive alien species

-Reduce biodiversity pollution which can happen from all sources.

-Ensure benefits to the vulnerable communities from the components of biodiversity in where they live.

-Ensure agriculture, aquaculture and forestry are managed successfully.

-Enhance nature’s contribution to air, water and territorial quality

-Increase the area of access to fresh air and water bodies to the people who live in densely populated areas.

-Ensure for fair access to the genetic resources for all.

-Integrate biodiversity values to each and every aspect of society.

-All businesses should evaluate their dependency and impacts to biodiversity.

-Encourage people to reduce the waste of materials

-Reduce the adverse impacts happening from the biotechnology to the biodiversity

-Reduce or eliminate the incentives which can be harmful to the biodiversity

-Increase financial resources which are donated to developing countries to implement the action plan.

-Ensure the traditional knowledge is utilized for the conservation of biodiversity

-Ensure to protect the rights of indigenous people for land/territories when implementing the conservation projects.

We hope to discuss about the International Biodiversity Convention and Sri Lanka in upcoming articles.